Watch Dogs | PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360, PC | Retail and download | $89.95 - $99.95| In a Chicago where every civic function, every device, every machine and every method of digital communication is run through a single operating system, hacker Aiden Pearce is a god. Or at least he ought to be.

Like its protagonist, Watch Dogs is nowhere near as deep or as interesting as one might have hoped given the potential of the premise. Ubisoft's open-world hack-fest certainly delivers on gameplay – the ability to control the city and survey its inhabitants from your phone adds a fresh sheen to a brilliant Assassin's Creed meets Splinter Cell design – but the grand promise of the setting is ruined by random, simple and at times kind of offensive characterisation. With no chance of sympathy for Aiden's plight and nothing tangible gained by invading the privacy of two-dimensial non-entities, it's fortunate that finding creative ways to dispatch your enemies (and occasionally invading another player's game online) is a lot of fun. Check out Calum Wilson Austin's thoughts in his full review.

Mario wields the crazy eight, and hopes he doesn't accidentally drop the bob-omb under his own kart.

Mario Kart 8 | Wii U | Retail and Download | $79.95 | Everybody thinks they're the best in the world at Mario Kart. Nintendo's 22-year-old king of multiplayer racing has never changed much at its core, and zooming around the 16 gorgeous new tracks and 16 retooled classics in Mario Kart 8 provides plenty of opportunity to feel like an absolute boss.

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Of course Nintendo’s unwillingness to change means criticisms of the older games still apply – the winner of a race is not necessarily the most skilled driver – but the over-the-top karts and characters, simple yet satisfying controls and comically brutal power-ups remain as entertaining as ever.

New in this entry is the ability to defy gravity in certain areas of the track, and while this doesn’t affect the gameplay much, it is a spectacle, especially viewed in slow-motion during a post-match replay. Read Jason Hill's full review here.

Ronan O’Connor is an impossibly hokey hard-boiled detective type, tasked with solving the most important mystery of his life: the reasons behind his death. As the ghostly spectre of O’Connor you float through walls, communicate with mediums, freak out or possess other human characters and even take control of several cats on your way to sorting out the case

Issues both narrative and technical abound – the story won’t make that much sense if you scrutinise it too closely and your ghostly powers are necessarily not as infinite as they should be – but the mixture of occult B movie tropes and grimey old detective tropes makes for a uniquely engaging experience. Be sure to find all the optional narrative ghost stories too, as they’re a highlight of the game.

MMO gameplay meets space-faring rock men and rabbit people in WildStar

While many online games have shied away from charging a monthly fee, WildStar makes it possible for players to pay for their subscription by trading in-game currency and gameplay time (bought with real money) with other players.

The gameplay side of things is shaping up to be typical MMO fare, in which you create a character, define your growth and take on increasingly deadly enemies with or without a clan of friends. Whether the addition of a colourful space-faring narrative and the promise of truly meaningful end-game content will make WildStar stand out above the crowd remains to be seen.

The colourful cast of Dragon Quest VIII.

Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King | iOS | $24.99 | Turn-based RPGs are the ideal kind of console game to re-release on a touch-screen device, and as one of the best of that genre to grace the PlayStation 2 (which had no shortage of great Japanese role-playing games), Dragon Quest VIII on iPhone and iPad is an amazing proposition.

The anime art style is sharper than ever on Apple’s latest mobile hardware, but beware if you own anything less because this is one resource-intensive game. Everything is retained from the original release, from the quirky and extraordinarily Japanese story to the deep levelling and weapon skill systems. If you’re a fan of long-form, ultra-high quality role-playing games and spend a lot of time gaming on your phone or tablet, it would be tough to do much better than this.